The theorist and theory that i'd refer to in a language and power question, particular in relevance to the Gordon Brown speech is Fairclough.
Fairclough (2001)
The power behind the discourse, as stated by Fairclough, is for political influence, particularly in this speech. The speech is generally for the public in informing them of his motives and what he will achieve as Prime Minister. The secondary purpose is to persuade all those who voted for him, that they made the right choice, and to persuade those who haven't that he will not let them down.
Power in discourse- The speech uses specific features which illustrate the power that the Prime Minister has, and to get his point across. The use of personal pronouns such as "we" demonstrates Fairclough's theory of synthetic personalisation which creates the friendly facade the government are trying to pull in collectively addressing the audience, or in this case, the public.
Ideology- The ideology here is the attitude towards the government, which they are trying to improve from the view points of the public. Therefore, they include a patriotic lexical field, accentuating how great Britain are, especially with the new Prime Minister.
